HOW CROSSTOWN PUB INCREASED SALES AND EFFICIENCYWITH TOUCHBISTRO’S IPAD POS SOLUTION
Serving great tasting food and creating a
comfortable and friendly culture for their
guests are top priorities for Crosstown Pub
& Grill, a popular gastropub with two
locations in Illinois. Crosstown Pub prides
itself on being a local neighborhood
establishment where guests enjoy fresh,
gourmet food, a wide selection of
beverages, and excellent service. For chef
and owner Jim Nichols Sr., Crosstown Pub
fulfills a passion and dream of owning his
own restaurant.
Unwilling to sacrifice service for speed,
Crosstown Pub was in need of a full-service
point of sale solution that would enable them
to serve their customers more efficiently,
while preserving the quality of service their
customers had grown to expect. Speed,
mobility, and ease of use were all at the top
of their point of sale wishlist. But what the
team at Crosstown didn’t know was that
today, all that’s needed to run any fast-paced
restaurant or bar is an iPad, loaded with a
sleek restaurant POS software.
KNOWN FOR ITS SPEED OF SERVICE AND 36 FLAVORS OF CHICKEN WINGS,
CROSSTOWN PUB IS NO STRANGER TO A BUSY, FAST-PACED SATURDAY NIGHT.
HOW CROSSTOWN PUB INCREASED SALES AND EFFICIENCYWITH TOUCHBISTRO’S IPAD POS SOLUTION
Jim Nichols, Owner
INCREASEDEFFICIENCYWITH THETAP OF AFINGER
It’s a really streamlined process
for a POS. And for the restaurant
industry specifically, it’s great-
this is the future of ordering.
PAIN POINTS
Over 100 major businesses are located near
Crosstown Pub, making it a popular lunchtime
destination. With the typical 60-minute lunch
break, customers need to come in, eat, and
pay their check very quickly. “The customer
experience is very fickle. If it takes thirty
minutes for their food to arrive, they’re not
going to want to come back,” says Nichols.
Crosstown servers need to be able to work
quickly and on the fly since they could be
needed at anytime in the restaurant’s various
dining areas, including a bar, outdoor patio,
and dining room. Crosstown opened with a
traditional POS system that didn’t allow for any
customization or mobility, making the order
process slow and inefficient– up to 25 minutes
with cooking time. Nichols wanted a smart and
customizable POS solution, that would allow
Crosstown to decrease wait time for customers
and increase efficiency for wait staff.
THE GOAL? INCREASE EFFICIENCY
After an unsuccessful trial run with another POS
solution, Nichols discovered TouchBistro™, an
iPad® POS specifically designed for restaurants.
TouchBistro’s all-in-one functionality allows
servers to quickly place orders and process
payments tableside. With integrated Mercury®
payment processing, Crosstown now has a
seamless mobile ordering and payment solution.
“The top three reasons why we chose this
solution were simply on the front end – being
able to accommodate custom requests on the
fly...and the ability to swipe the payment card
securely at the point of sale. Next, having the
customer sign on-screen, and emailing them
the receipt. Everybody loves that,” said Nichols.
Nichols explains that the system not only
streamlines the ordering process so food
comes out faster, but also allows for order
changes and additions, and the ability to close
out tabs quicker. “You can’t do all that with
a written format,” said Nichols. “You have
to do that with technology.”
FULL SPEED AHEAD
The ability to get customers in and out in
fifteen minutes – as opposed to 30 minutes
or longer – has tremendously increased
Crosstown’s business and ensured more
repeat customers. Nichols states that during
the restaurant’s highest periods, Crosstown
Pub turns over 176 more tables than they
previously could with a traditional POS
system, which equates to at least $2,000
a night, four nights a week. Portrait or Landscape View
“People from the business community can
come in and leave within fifteen, twenty
minutes,” he says.
Customers like the format of the iPad POS
because they get their check and are able to
make a credit card payment right from their
seat, without requiring a paper receipt. As
one loyal patron notes, “It makes life easier!”
Employees are happy too; “We use the iPads
to complete all of our transactions…as soon
as I punch in orders on the iPad and click
‘send’ it’s already being made…so that makes
my life a lot easier”, explains a Crosstown
server. Jim’s serving staff also say they
make higher tips because of the experience
they are able to provide to customers with
TouchBistro’s intuitive interface and ease of
use. For Jim, this means quicker onboarding,
less errors, and a lower staff turnover rate.
FOOD FOR THOUGHT
Crosstown Pub’s great staff, quality of
service and amazing food are all critical
to the restaurant’s success, but Nichols is
quick to credit progressive technology from
TouchBistro as an important element of the
Crosstown experience. “Technology helped
us reduce over seven minutes of wait time off
what it took to get an order,” said Nichols.
“It’s a really streamlined process for a POS.
And for the restaurant industry specifically,
it’s great. “This is the future of ordering.”
INTERESTED IN LEARNING MORE? CHECK OUT THESE GREAT READS:
Steam Whistle and TouchBistro:A Brew for Success
Top 10 Must-HaveQualities in an Ideal POS
Smart Decision Guide toRestaurant POS Systems
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www.TouchBistro.comCopyright © 2015 TouchBistro™
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Technology helped us reduce over
seven minutes of wait time off what
it took to get an order.
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